I thought this book was a very engaging gothic thriller. Ashley Tate has a strong talent for creating atmosphere that is almost like its own character within the story. I felt like the story was in sepia tones, the environment felt dusty and rusted and filled with creaking floorboards and spiderwebs. The atmosphere helps the reader connect to the theme of overcoming (or failure to overcome) grief. The atmosphere becomes symbolic of the rot of grief that isn’t dealt with in a healthy way, that transforms people into sad, angry, resentful people who then create a cycle of loneliness and sadness in others within their family.
This book has a lot to offer and I think a lot of people will enjoy reading it.
I’m so excited to see what Ashley Tate does next.

One of my most anticipated thrillers of 2024 and it did NOT disappoint! I was wholly absorbed in the tense storyline and the cryptic and intriguing prose. The insightful dissection of the destructive effects of parental expectations and small-town gossip was incredibly well done, as was the exploration of the complex and inescapable nature of fraternal and sororal bonds. My heart broke for June and for Becky, as well as the long-dead yet ever-present Phoebe, as their unique yet closely-woven stories brought them closer and closer to a climactic and heartrending conclusion. Will definitely be recommending this one!

I read this till about 25% and I just couldn’t get invested. The characters were unlikeable and I wasn’t dedicated enough to read about what happens.

An entire town obsessed with the death of their most promising high school senior....Phoebe's death rocked the town to it's core. There have always been mysterious circumstances surrounding it - from the illegal teen party, to the amount of time it seems that it took her brother to call the ambulance that may have saved her. At the ten year mark, a celebration and remembrance is planned. Those who have kept secrets from the night become more and more agitated and those that are searching for answers may not like what they find!

Great. plot and pace, I was truly surprised by the ending and you will be too! If you like your thrillers thrilling, your suspense taunt and are ready to read the next best writer in the genre, Twenty-Seven Minutes is for you!
—Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push


#AshelyTate #TwentySevenMinutes #poisonedpenpress

A whole town is haunted by the death of a teenager 10 years earlier. As the anniversary comes up, the secrets become harder to hold on to. I didn’t enjoy this book very much because it was hard to connect with the characters and to believe what they were experiencing.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley, but all thoughts are my own.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

One of the best books I've read in a long while!!

Such a wonderful thriller! Some parts were predictable, but I was mostly surprised. The characters were well developed. I really enjoyed this one!

Here is my confession…

I really, really, wanted to like this book, really. However, sadly, but not really sadly, I did not.

The premise, the blurb, sounded solid and strong. We have an accident where a young woman Phoebe Dean, is laying mortally injured and 27 minutes before help is called? This sounds good right? Well, the action in the prologue is intense. That was the only part of the book that was.

We move 10 years later and a town is still questioning that fateful night. What happened to perfect, pretty, Phoebe Dean? Who really cares? The Anniversary of that night is approaching and Grant, our idiot protagonist who didn’t call for help until 27 minutes later, is “ trying to come to terms” with that night. I call BS. He is so flat and one dimensional he isn’t capable of feeling or processing anything.

Then we have another mystery thrown into the story revolving around a missing person, Wyatt. I won’t even go there. I can’t.

I will say, the one good thing about this story, besides that it ended, was the multiple POV’s. The author did a really great job with that.

As far as the “twist” that can be untwisted relatively early.

I’m sorry, I appreciate the opportunity to have received this eARC, but my review is supposed to be honest.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity. All opinions are my own.

What a twist! What a debut! Bravo 👏🏽👏🏽to the author! I had to sit and take it all in at the end of this book. Please do yourself a favor and add this to your pre-order list as soon as you can! This story hooks you and holds you there until the last possible moment. It deals with the death of Phoebe, and all that could have been if a call had been made only 27 minutes earlier. The story is told from multiple points of view and there are flashbacks that also provide insights to bring it all together with such a good twist. Although I felt lost a bit at the beginning with so many characters, I appreciated every single viewpoint towards the end. Five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me and looking forward to the authors future work!

I started this book while relaxing in the hot tub and I literally could not stop reading this book. Each chapter is narrated by a different character and is filled with flashbacks. The big question is "what happened on the night that Phoebe Dean died in a car accident?" With so many twists and turns, unreliable narrators and more, I was left guessing until the very end. While I could do a little bit of guessing as to what happened on the night of the accident, I was still surprised at everything that happened. I loved this book and highly recommend reading it!

I read this book in one night and loved it. It was full of twists that I wasn’t expecting and I would definitely read more books from this author.

A fatal car crash haunts a small town. Phoebe Dean, the golden girl of the graduating high school class in rural West Wilmer died when her brother’s truck crashed after a drunken party. The crash forever changed the lives of her brother Grant, the driver, and Becca, another senior who was inexplicably in the truck. That same rainy night Wyatt Delroy ran away, leaving his sister June bereft.
It is now ten years later. The dangerous bridge has claimed another victim, adding poignancy to the scheduled tenth-year commemoration ceremony of Phoebe’s death. Tate shows us the festering pathology that has grown over the years in the minds of each of the characters.
She tells the story through the tortured thoughts of Grant, Becca, June, and Wyatt while presenting a powerful picture of hardscrabble poverty and loss. For much of the book the hallucination and reality swirl together until we finally find out what really happened that night.
The structure of the book and number of characters challenge the reader.

A great read with lots of damaged and tormented characters struggling with an event that took place 10 years back. Loved the surprise ending and twists it took.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen for the ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was unfortunately not for me. The writing was good, but unsympathetic characters, too many alternating character chapters, and an unearned twist led me to kick it down to three stars from the four I was expecting to give it based on the synopsis. I think it will be popular, and there was enough promise here that I would check out any of the author's future work.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review..

Novel about a tragedy that took life and destroyed lives of others. The ending was unexpected.

I completely FREAKED out when I was approved for this stunner!

I have never put a book down to pick up a new one without finishing buttttt let’s just say I “paused” the previous book I had been reading when I got this approval.

I was introduced to Ashley Tate via Bookstagram and had been SO excited to read Twenty-Seven Minutes.

The plot is extremely unique, taking place in the three days leading up to the memorial for Phoebe who had tragically died 10 years prior in an accident that has left the townspeople with so many questions. We are also given glimpses with flash back chapters to what took place that night 10 years ago. The chapters are narrated from multiple points of view that allow you perspective.

I won’t lie to you! These characters had my feelings in overdrive. Some I loved and some … not so much.

This book is EVERYTHING and to think it is a debut is just wild!!!! If this is the first, I can’t even imagine the next!!!!

Ashley Tate is a natural born storyteller and she has made an instant fan out of me!

Teaser :

The question

For the last ten years, the small, claustrophobic town of West Wilmer has been struggling to understand one thing: Why did it take young Grant Dean twenty-seven minutes to call for help on the fateful night of the car accident that took the life of his beloved sister, Phoebe? If he'd called sooner, she might still be alive.

The secret

As the anniversary of Phoebe's death approaches, Grant is consumed by memories of that night on the bridge and everything he lost: his future, his reputation, his little sister. And the secret he's been keeping all these years is suffocating him. But he and Phoebe weren't the only ones in the car that night. Becca was there. She knows what happened―and she will do anything to help Grant keep his secret.

The truth

Everyone in West Wilmer remembers Phoebe, but only June remembers that another person was lost that night. Her brother Wyatt has been missing for ten years and now June is alone―no family, no friends. Until someone appears at her door. Someone who may know where Wyatt went all those years ago. Someone who knows what really happened on the bridge that night. Someone who is ready to tell the truth.

Taking place over three days and culminating in a shocking twist that will leave you breathless, Twenty-Seven Minutes is a gripping story about what happens when grief becomes unbearable, dark secrets are unearthed, and the horrifying truth is revealed.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Twenty seven minutes is a thriller/mystery, staged in a small town where everyone knows each other.
The story starts 10 years ago, when a young girl is laying on the street after an accident. She suffered terrible injuries, but she comes from a small town, so everyone will know it’s her: Phoebe Dean.

We then jump 10 years forward and meet the other characters. I was actually stunned by how I disliked all the characters. I would have wished that there would be at least one I could relate to. Every character has their own POV, which I liked. If you are a fanatic thriller/ mystery reader like I am, the plot and twists were pretty obvious early on. The suspense and tension, however, were written pretty well. I still wanted to know what would happen and what happened in those 27 minutes.

I liked the storytelling of Ashley and for a Debut it is pretty good. There were a couple of moments that the story got a bit repetitive, which took me out of the story. I didn't fall in love with the book, but it wasn't horrible and I believe that Ashley has great potential. I would read another book written by her. I would rate this book between 3.5 and 4 stars.

This gripping, twisty mystery sucked me in from the very first page. The author doesn’t hold her punches, the lush prose delivered raw grief and loss that reached deep in my guts and left me bleeding. Beautiful storytelling.

Phoebe dies in a car accident and Grant and Becca survive but are seriously injured.

It took Grant 27 minutes to call for help
He was 27 minutes too late to save his sister's life.

Wyatt disappeared that night. He stayed away for a decade, without contacting his family.
He returns home on the day of his mother's funeral, intent on disclosing the secrets that could change lives. But he has been forgotten all these years, except by June, his sister. The death of Phoebe has been the focus of attention. Questions and suspicions still festering.

Becca is obsessed with Grant, but he scarcely pays her any attention, except to keep her quiet about that terrible accident.

It seems as though the whole town are harbouring dark secrets after the death of Phoebe.

This book was good, I won't say great, but for a debut thriller, it was good. Different POV's made the story flow, and the grief, pain and guilt of the characters was well described.
Every character, however was extremely unlikeable.
The 'twist' was something I did predict early on in the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC!

Why did it take Grant Dean Twenty-Seven minutes to help his sister?
Twenty-Seven minutes is a mystery/thriller with different POV's and timelines. Set on the small town of West Wilmer where residents cannot forget what happened that faithful night ten years ago and a recent tradegy that has people on edge.

I devoured this book in a day, the twist was pretty easy to see but the different POV's kept me intrigued to see how everything was going to unfold. A couple of the characters were so unlikable that it made it hard to feel bad or connect with them in any way. I do wish that the ending would've given a little more, I wanted to know how the characters dealt with the aftermath.

Overall I give this 4 out 5 because it really was a great book and I will definitely read more from this Author.